Peak White Socialism:

In the days since the referendum my wall has been filled with mourning. Hundreds of voices, and this extends across parties, crying out with anguish at the result. One has stuck with me, it’s stuck with me because it belonged to someone who lacked a voice. 
I won’t name the person in question but they were a Spanish immigrant, with a Spanish passport and a Spanish partner and child. They are resident in my town and they are scared. They’re scared because they don’t really know what the outcome will be for them and their family. They don’t really believe that all Leave voters are racist, they don’t believe the EU is perfect, they aren’t one of the benefit tourists that makes Mr Duncan Smith so mad but they now have no idea what the future holds. 
It may be possible, as many suggest, that they will be allowed to stay as they are. That freedom of movement will be maintained across the EU by staying in the EEA but how does any of that matter when they don’t know. Their life is now in limbo for at least three years as politicians debate a future they had no say in and which has ended with anger at people like them. 
This isn’t to say the Leavers haven’t tried to sell them on the idea of leaving. When this voice arose on a local forum to admit their worry at the result, under a post about anti-migrant violence, many of them told this person that they should be greatful. That they had been taken out of a failed project and that it was nothing to do with their race or creed or colour. It was about control. 
A control all immigrant workers now totally lack. They had no control in the future of the country where they live and work. They now have no control over their own immigration status. They don’t have any control over whether they get to stay. This will be decided by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove who have now totally abdicated control in favour of avoiding the spotlight. “Out of the EU and into the world” is what we were told, but who believes that alongside posters reading “breaking point.” 
It’s not just that immigrant workers have no control however. It’s that they’re already under attack. Posters telling Polish workers to go home are left on cars. Signs calling for repatriation are put up in Newcastle. The Huffington Post has already documented tens of cases of anti-migrant violence. It is day three. 
No, this does not mean that all leave voters are racist. However this vote has animated racists by convincing them that the UK agrees with them. Mary from down the street, who voted leave for control, may know she’s not racist but Phil doesn’t know that. He thinks it’s because they all want the Muslims out, the Poles out, the Immigrants out. 
This was the campaign we witnessed, this was the campaign that we must now manage. We must rebuild anti-fascist networks long dormant to fight a renewed and emboldened far right across Britain. We must also look over to the continent where we have handed these same far right parties a huge weapon to use against their Governments. Far right parties that put ours to shame for their rhetoric and violence, and this is the same rhetoric and violence that, in the UK, killed a sitting MP for the first time in two decades.
This brings me back to the headline, and why I am a tad incredulous at the fact I found many of my socialist brothers (I use brothers because the vast majority were men) supported Brexit. For all of their interesting arguments, and they were incredibly compelling, about freedom and sovereignty they largely came down to one thing. How best to achieve a socialist government. 
At this point I can’t help but feel that there are a large number of comrades from across the continent and in Britain, largely from BME and immigrant backgrounds, who might feel betrayed by that decision. As much as they may support attempts to create a socialist government they are likely a little uncomfortable with risking their safety and security in the process. This is why for me “Lexit” was, and now is, peak white socialism. We have betrayed the international spirit of our movement and our comrades abroad for just a chance, not even a guarantee, of a socialist government in Britain. 
And now, in the context of the Labour coup, that chance seems up in smoke. Well done.